Welcome to the ISCB Community News Blog

This blog collects news, announcements or other information which could be of interest to our ISCB members. We are a group ISCB members who volunteer to populate this blog on a regular basis. In case you want to become an "ISCB-News Reporter" yourself, let us know: contact ISCBDon't repost copyrighted content! The guidelines are:- Include a link to the source page- Include a short summary about the article. You can quote up to ONE paragraph from the original story, but not more- Don't repost an entire articles originating from another source- Never post content without attribution — always include the sourceTo post a news, please use this form.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

The Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS) is an internationally known research center located at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. IGS offers five different workshops as part of a professional development program organized by Dr. Michelle Giglio, a faculty member at IGS with over 17 years of experience in genomics and bioinformatics. Dr. Giglio has recruited IGS faculty and staff to form a highly experienced instruction team to provide workshop participants with the knowledge and skills needed to engage in numerous omics applications. All IGS workshops are hands-on, providing attendees with real-world challenges and experience.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

The new NIGMS strategic plan is now available at: http://publications.nigms.nih.gov/strategicplan. We would like to thank all of you who provided input to help shape this document, which outlines many of the priorities and activities that we will pursue over the next 5 years. The plan is designed to serve as a framework to both codify and focus our efforts, while still allowing us the flexibility to pursue untapped opportunities in mission-relevant areas.

In addition to its specific goals, objectives, and implementation strategies, the plan reiterates our commitment to the stewardship of taxpayer funds and an atmosphere of open dialogue, collaboration and shared responsibility with the scientific community. We welcome any suggestions you may have that would help us become as efficient and effective as possible in the pursuit of our mission. URL: http://publications.nigms.nih.gov/strategicplan/NIGMS-strategic-plan.pdf

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

The focus of this workshop is the use of nature-inspired approaches to central problems in computational structural biology, including optimization methods under the umbrella of evolutionary computation. A particular emphasis will be on progress in the application of evolutionary computation to problems related to any aspects of protein structure modeling, characterization, and analysis.

The workshop will allow for a broader focus on all structure-related problems that necessitate the design of novel evolutionary computation approaches. These may include broader structure modeling settings beyond de novo structure prediction, such as mapping of protein and peptide energy landscapes, structure analysis, design, docking, and other emerging problems in computational structural biology.

We invite submissions on presentations of the
following topics:

Use of artificial life models like cellular automata or Lindenmayer systems in the modeling of biological problems.

Study and analysis of properties of biological systems like self-organization, emergent behavior or morphogenesis.

Multi-objective approaches in the modeling of computational biology problems.

Use of natural and evolutionary computation algorithms in protein structure classification and prediction (secondary and tertiary).

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Nominations are currently being accepted for the National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The National Medals offer a unique opportunity to showcase the best and brightest minds within your organizations and the outstanding scientists and innovators you work with each and every day.

to submit a nomination for the National Medal of Science, go to: https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/honawards/medalHome.do;jsessionid=3252526f6b085051de1479869ce2:Dqk3 to submit a nomination for the National Medal of Science.

To download the nomination form for the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, go to: http://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/ip-programs-and-awards/national-medal-technology-and-innovation-nmti

Monday, March 9, 2015

The Public Library of Science (PLOS) and the PLOS Computational Biology editorial team would like to express our tremendous gratitude to all those individuals who participated in the peer review process this past year at PLOS Computational Biology. As a journal that is run by and for the scientific community, we depend upon you, the community, to communicate our best work. 2014 was great year for PLOS Computational Biology; during the year, over 2700 reviewers from around the world helped evaluate over 1000 articles.

The names of our 2014 reviewers are listed in S1 Reviewer List. Thank you to all our reviewers for sharing your expertise with the PLOS Computational Biology authors. Your efforts are an important part of making the journal a highly valued open access resource created by and for the benefit of the scientific community. URL: http://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004184

Friday, March 6, 2015

As part of the FAceS project (www.faces.wi.tum.de/), the Chair for Strategy and Organization (Prof. Isabell M. Welpe) at the Technische Universität München, Germany, is currently conducting a survey about publication practices and performance measurement in science. To attain representative knowledge about publication practices and performance measurement across different countries and disciplines (e.g., biology), we are particularly interested in your assessment and specifications on this topic. Participation in this survey will take approximately 20 minutes. Participants will be offered the chance to participate in the raffle for an iPad mini. Upon request, we will be happy to send you a summary of the results of the survey.

WASHINGTON — The National Academy of Sciences announced today the creation of the new Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in Convergence Research. A generous gift from Raymond and Beverly Sackler and the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation will endow the prize, to be presented annually beginning this year with an inaugural $400,000 award.

"The prize will recognize significant advances in convergence research -- the integration of two or more of the following disciplines: mathematics, physics, chemistry, biomedicine, biology, astronomy, earth sciences, engineering, and computational science -- for achievements possible only through such integration. This year's prize will be awarded for convergence research that benefits human health. Two-thirds of the prize money will be awarded to the selected researcher(s), and the remaining third will go to support the researcher's work.

"Convergence research is responsible for major breakthroughs that are making real impacts on people's lives such as 3-D printing of human tissue, new biofuels, and more precise drug delivery systems," said Raymond Sackler. "Beverly and I hope that the recognition and prestige bestowed through this prize encourages more researchers to work across disciplines and make exciting new discoveries."

"Convergence science is not only necessary but critical to tackling some of the world's most pressing challenges," said National Academy of Sciences President Ralph J. Cicerone. "This generous gift allows the National Academy of Sciences to highlight and support the revolutionary advances in science that result from interdisciplinary ideas and approaches."

Dr. Raymond Sackler is a founder and board member of Purdue Pharma L.P., Stamford, Conn., and the Mundipharma Companies of Europe, Asia and Africa. Individually and through their foundations, Dr. Sackler and his wife Beverly have sponsored scientific and biomedical research at a number of major U.S. academic centers, including: Boston University; CalTech (in collaboration with University of California, Los Angeles); Columbia University; Dana Farber Research Institute; Duke University; Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton); Massachusetts Institute of Technology; MD Anderson Cancer Center; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; New York University; Rockefeller University; Tufts University; University of California, Berkeley (in collaboration with University of California, San Francisco); University of Connecticut; University of Toledo College of Medicine; University of Washington, Seattle; Weill Cornell Medical School; Yale University; and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. International academic centers include Cambridge University (UK), Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques (France), Tel Aviv University (Israel); University of Leiden (Netherlands); and the University of Toronto (Canada).

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and -- with the National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council -- provides science, technology, and health policy advice to the nation.